NEED CAN SHAKE FAITH

DAY 213 OF 365 IN 2021

Exodus 16:3 The Israelites said to them, "If only the LORD had let us die in Egypt! There we sat by our pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted! You brought us out into this desert to let us all starve to death!"

Throughout scripture we encounter God in many dimensions, yet one dimension that seems to be a common theme is his place as provider. Amongst the many things he provides, the one area of focus in this reflection, is “God the provider of meat and bread”.

In today’s text, God appears to respond rather quickly to Israel when they compared their hunger on the journey to their abundance in Egypt and in recalling the feeding of the five thousand, we would notice that the initiator of the process of feeding them was Jesus himself. If there is something the two stories highlight, it is the fact that God understands the place of need in the relationship between Himself and man.

Need in any form has a way of undermining any relationship- here was Israel preferring the bondage but plenty in Egypt to the freedom but lack on their journey. We might think we have the strongest of faith and the best of relationships with God and with others until a need pushes us to breaking point. Let us not be so quick to identify people as faithless or unfaithful when we have not experienced adversity of need in a manner that has truly tested our faith because real need can shake even the strongest of faiths.

#sly